yon old oak-wood will look joyful on the mountain, and
the gloom become glimmer in the profound abyss.

Wordsworth says that "it must be more desirable, for the purposes of
pleasure, that lakes should be numerous, and small or middle-sized, than
large, not only for communication by walks and rides, but for variety,
and for recurrence of similar appearances." The Highlands have them of
all sizes--and that surely is best. But here is one which, it has been
truly said, is not only "incomparable in its beauty as in its
dimensions, exceeding all others in variety as it does in extent and
splendour, but unites in itself every style of scenery which is found in
the other lakes of the Highlands." He who has studied, and understood,
and felt all Loch Lomond, will be prepared at once to enjoy any other
fine lake he looks on; nor will he admire nor love it the less, though
its chief character should consist in what forms but one part of that of
the Wonder in which all kinds of beauty and sublimity are combined.

We feel that it would be idle, and worse than idle, to describe any
number of the Highland lochs, for so many of the finest have been seen
by so many eyes that few persons probably will ever read these pages to
whom such descriptions would be, at the best, more than shadowings of
scenery that their own imaginations can more vividly re-create. There
are other reasons for not saying a single word about some of the most
beautiful; for genius has pictured and peopled them and the surrounding
regions in colours that will never fade. Besides, in the volumes to
which these "Remarks" are a preface--contributed with pleasure, somewhat
impaired indeed by the consciousness of their many defects and
imperfections--views of them all are submitted to the eye; and it is not
to be thought that we could by words add to the effect of the works of
such artists. These objections do not apply to what we have written
respecting the character of the Scenery of the Highlands, apart, as far
as that may be, from their lochs; and it may have in some measure
illustrated them also, if it has at all truly characterised the
mountains, the glens, the rivers, the forests, and the woods.

We may be allowed, however, to say, that there cannot be a greater
mistake than to think, as many, we believe, do who have only heard of
the Highland Lochs, that, with the exception of those famous for their
beauty as well as their grandeur, beauty is not only not the q